Strength and diet : a practical treatise with special regard to the life of nations / by the Hon. R. Russell.

  • Russell, Francis Albert Rollo, 1849-1914.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Strength and diet : a practical treatise with special regard to the life of nations / by the Hon. R. Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    140/672 (page 128)
    Diet in the Middle Ages and Later The present tendency is towards an equality in fare among employers and employed. Labourers eat more flesh, and many of the well-to-do have learnt the value of porridge and fruit. There was plenty of flesh diet among the rich, at least in the Middle Ages. “ Two courses of flesh of four sorts should suffice ”; this was the reduced diet. Enormous feasts were provided on great occasions, as, for instance, an archbishop’s enthronement. The quantities of rich food, of which details are given, are surprising.1 In the fourteenth century, in England the rich fared sumptuously, as they have everywhere else in nearly all ages. Pork, goose, capon, poultry, beef, and mutton were much eaten. The names of flesh- dishes are still Norman, the names of foods from plants are Saxon, showing the difference of fare between classes after the conquest. “ Bread, butter, and cheese were the ordinary food of the common people, probably with little else besides vegetables.” Bread was often made from grain quickly on the spot after grinding. “The leek appears to have been the principal vegetable among the Anglo-Saxons.” Garden cresses and other herbs were in use. The chief fruit was the apple. Nuts and plums were grown, and